# the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy



## ultraviolet (Jun 30, 2008)

Anyone read the trilogy of five? I'm sure at least some of you have seen the movie (they butchered it badly, didn't they?) but has anyone read the books?

I finally got my own copy of the guide for my birthday. ^_^


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## Altmer (Jun 30, 2008)

I have read them all and they get progressively more boring, but the first three parts rule and Fenchurch owns the fourth book, the fifth is kinda zzz.

They butchered the movie except it has Zooey Deschanel.


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## Furretsu (Jun 30, 2008)

Good books, wrong forum... =P


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## Time Psyduck (Jun 30, 2008)

The books are good.
The movie is OK, it's just a different version of the story (the books and the origional radio series contradict each other as well), It may not be as good as the books, but it's unique. The hitchhiker's series is contradictory, it's part of the nature of it.


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## Altmer (Jun 30, 2008)

the movie sucks regardless of the plot adaptations


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## Minish (Jun 30, 2008)

I've only read the first, and it bored me silly, so I'm not going to read any more. :P


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## goldenquagsire (Jun 30, 2008)

I own a battered, second-hand copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy omnibus, with all five books in one. It was the one thing that saved me from the brink of madness when I was in Hungary, which was one of the most mindnumbingly dull holidays I have ever gone on.

As much as it pains me to speak a single negative word about the series, I have to concede that the books and the radio series did become a little duller as they went along. Nevertheless, the original radio programmes and the first two or three books remain some of my favourite entertainment.

@Cirrus: You HAVE to try the radio series. It is far from boring. :D


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## Celestial Blade (Jun 30, 2008)

Anyone remember the guy named "Number Two" who interrogated a gazelle?


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## Kaito (Jul 1, 2008)

I absolutely adored the first three, and the second two were meh, but ok. Definitely not as good as the first ones. I just re-read the third one recently, actually. Life, the Universe, and Everything. Zaphod is by far the most amazing person in the entire book. I have a copy which includes the first five in the series, and the sixth book on its own. Best part of the second book - Total Perspective Vortex.


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## Morbid (Jul 1, 2008)

The first two books are two of my favourite books ever. The other books aren't so decent though they all have some good bits. The first radio series was brilliant, can't remember the others so much tbh. The movie was a little bit crap but Zooey Deschanel's fit :)


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## Altmer (Jul 2, 2008)

I have a copy with the five books all in one and that Zaphod story.


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## Time Psyduck (Jul 2, 2008)

Number two was briliant (as were all of the telephone sanitizers ect)

What sixth book? There's a short story about zaphod, a radio episode set after the end of the last one, and half a dirk gently book that may have become a hitchhiker's book, bu that's it.


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## Espeon (Jul 2, 2008)

The film did kind of... yeah, butcher it a little.

I did like the bit where the aliens were invading the house on the "new Earth", and they shut the garden gate, and the aliens go: "Oh no! The gate is shut! We'll have to go 'round the other waaaaay!!!". I laughed so much...


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## ultraviolet (Jul 3, 2008)

I agree the last two were like... meh. I think Douglas was trying to put as many of his ideas into the first book as he could, but by the end it was... strained. But Fenchurch rocks. She's my favourite character, apart from the triple-breasted whore of eroticon 6. xD
I haven't seen the TV series or heard the radio series, but my boyfriend has the TV series so if they're any good I might borrow them. I think the only thing they did right in the film was Arthur Dent, Marvin and Trillian (I mean, the turned Ford into a random black guy for crying out loud, not to be racist but that's so _not _Ford) and Zaphod was just terrible. Although I could have a prejudice towards the movie because it doesn't explain anything really, at least not nearly as much as they do in the book, so if you've never read the series then it doesn't make any sense. :/

Although, if they were going to do it _properly _it'd have to be at least four hours long. :3


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## Eevee (Jul 5, 2008)

win

read them all, yes, but alas it has been a while

I thought the movie was fine, though, and I don't see any reason why Ford should be any specific race  :V  Last I heard there are actually black people in the UK!


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## ultraviolet (Jul 6, 2008)

I don't mind him being _black_ particularly, they just made him a completely different character then what he's described as originally. I feel like instead of quirky and odd they made him the 'token black guy', which is a really weak convention to use in film and something they really shouldn't have done with Ford.


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## Music Dragon (Jul 6, 2008)

You know, I really have to ask, what with my poor-to-average English...

Is there such a thing as a "trilogy of five"?


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## ultraviolet (Jul 6, 2008)

No. Trilogy refers to three books/novels/novella/whatever. It's called a Trilogy of Five because three were in the original trilogy, then two were discovered after Douglas Adams died and were published.

...I think. Or it's just Douglas being ridiculous.


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## goldenquagsire (Jul 6, 2008)

> ...I think. Or it's just Douglas being ridiculous.


Yeah, it's this one. My _Hitchhiker's_ omnibus, which contains all five of them, was published in 1995, predating his death by six years. Furthermore, it even has an introduction written by Adams himself in which he mentions the last two books. x3


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## Music Dragon (Jul 6, 2008)

Oh. Well, that makes sense. *pats ultraviolet*


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## Altmer (Jul 6, 2008)

Music Dragon said:


> You know, I really have to ask, what with my poor-to-average English...
> 
> Is there such a thing as a "trilogy of five"?


isn't that a quintology


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## Empoleon (Jul 6, 2008)

I have the omnibus of five and "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe". I love them.


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## Blaziking the God General (Jul 6, 2008)

I finally got The Restaraunt at the End of the Universe from interlibrary loan! :D I've already read half of it though. I love the series. I even started a fan club of it in the forums.


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## Morbid (Jul 7, 2008)

Altmer said:


> isn't that a quintology


There's something on the back of one of mine describing it as an "increasingly inaccurately named trilogy" lol, think it was So Long And Thanks For All The Fish maybe?


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## Altmer (Jul 10, 2008)

I don't know, I have all the books in one and the same edition


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## Bombsii (Oct 1, 2008)

well I like the ending of the movie more than the first book, the 1st one is the only one i've read mind...


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